Team GeForce have just launched a new Game Ready Nvidia driver, v397.31, which provides optimal graphical support for the mech-smooshing, turn-based strategy bot-fest, BattleTech, as well as a developer preview of Nvidia’s RTX technology.
Check out our pick of the best graphics cards around today.
BattleTech’s not the only new game to get new Nvidia drivers support, they’re also there to give the best experience for the morally bankrupt, city management game, FrostPunk. Julian’s been sacrificing, murdering, and generally giving his populace a pretty rotten Arctic Victorian time of it. Lovely stuff.
But it’s the Nvidia RTX support also buried in the driver which is rather more tantalising for me than the prospect of a coal-powered dictatorship. The real-time raytracing technology is going to bring super-sexeh lighting to games by the end of the year and has already been shown off making Stormtroopers look uncannily real and Metro: Exodus rather lovely. In a horrific, post-apocalyptic way, obvs.
It’s a developer preview at the moment, so we’re not going to be able to actually get anything raytraced ourselves, and not least because we don’t have any Nvidia Volta graphics cards. That’s a minimum, by the way. As is the latest update to Windows, code-named Redstone 4.
But it’s promising that it’s already in the drivers, and potentially in the hands of any developer that wants to jam it into their games.
Support for:
- BattleTech
- FrostPunk
New features:
- Nvidia RTX Technology
Developer preview for NVIDIA RTX ray tracing technology for DirectX 12. NVIDIA RTX supports the Microsoft DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API on NVIDIA Volta GPUs. In order to get started with developing DirectX Raytracing applications accelerated by RTX, you’ll need the following:
– NVIDIA Volta GPU
– NVIDIA driver version 396 or higher
– Windows 10 RS4
– Microsoft’s DXR developer package, consisting of DXR-enabled D3D runtimes, HLSL compiler, and headers
- Vulkan 1.1
This driver release provides full support for the new Vulkan 1.1 API and passes the Vulkan Conformance Test Suite (CTS) version 1.1.0.3.
- HD Audio
This driver adds new sample rates 32 kHz, 88.2 kHz, and 176.4 kHz to the HDMI device for all GPUs.
- Display Driver Standalone Installer
The standalone display driver installer now removes extracted files after installing the driver, leaving a smaller footprint on the hard drive.
- Display Driver Libraries
Added new libraries (nvdlist.dll and nvdlistx.dll) to support Optimus and MSHybrid notebooks.
- NVDECODE API
Added a new API that lets the client reconfigure the decoder resolution and other post processing parameters (such as the display resolution, cropping rectangle, and aspect ratio of the decoded frame) without having to destroy and recreate the decoder instance. This API is useful in scenarios where the decoder instance initialization time takes up a significant portion of the overall decode execution time; for example, in back-to-back decoding of multiple short clips of different resolutions.
The new API will be included in Video Codec SDK 8.2, which is expected to release in late Q2 2018.
Fixed issues:
- [GeForce GTX 1080 Ti][Doom]: The game crashes due to the driver reverting to OpenGL 1.1 when HDR is enabled.
- [GeForce GTX 1060][Far Cry 5]: The game crashes after a few minutes of game play.
- NvfbcPluginWindow temporarily prevents Windows from shutting down after
- launching a Steam game.
- [Firefox]: Driver TDR error may occur when using Firefox.
- [GeForce GTX 1060][Rise of Tomb Raider]: Flickering/corruption occurs when opening the in-game options UI.
- [NVIDIA Control Panel][SLI][Diablo III]: With V-Sync on and SLI enabled, the game freezes after switching windows (ALT+TAB) a few times.
Existing issues:
- [Microsoft Edge][HDR] With HDR turned ON, video playback in full-screen mode on an HDR display may cause corruption of the video and desktop.
To recover, manually turn the monitor OFF and then back ON.
- [Far Cry 5]: Green flickering occurs in the game when using HDR with non-native resolution.
To work around, either quit and then restart the game while in the desired resolution, or press [Alt+tab] away from and then back to the game, or press [Alt+Enter] to switch to windowed mode and then back to full-screen mode.
- [NVIDIA TITAN V][G-Sync]: G-Sync displays may go blank when switching between different overclocked memory clocks multiple times.
- [SLI][GeForce GTX 780 Ti]: There is no display output when connecting the DisplayPort and two DVI monitors.
- [GeForce TITAN (Kepler-based)]: The OS fails after installing the graphics card on a Threadripper-enabled motherboard.
- [Pascal GPUs][Gears of War 4]: Blue-screen crash may occur while playing the game.
- [GeForce GTX 1080 Ti]{Warhammer Vermintide 2][DirectX 12]: TDR errors may occur when changing resolutions in game.
To work around, use the DirectX 11 game option.
- [NVIDIA Control Panel][Surround]: NVIDIA Surround hot keys do not work.
- [GeForce Experience][ShadowPlay]: The “In-Game Overlay” option cannot be enabled, nor does Shadowplay recording work.
The Microsoft Media Foundation library must be installed in order to use these features. Be sure to first install the Media Foundation package.